Mitchellaneous

We live in the world of paywalled content, unilateral contract modification, micro transactions, serialised content, upsells, and the list goes on and on and on. Everyone is trying to find a way to extract money in one way or another, and that is something I find personally draining and soul-crushing.

— Manu Moreale, quoted by Manton Reece

I follow conversations among professional educators who all report the same phenomenon, which is that their students use ChatGPT for everything, and in consequence learn nothing. We may end up with at least one generation of people who are like the Eloi in H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, in that they are mental weaklings utterly dependent on technologies that they don’t understand and that they could never rebuild from scratch were they to break down.

— Neal Stephenson, as quoted on simonwillison.net

Classic 1960s Volkswagen ads. (Nick Sherman / Fonts in Use) — Thanks, Dave!

Rep. Darrell Issa’s mail-ballot lawsuit may be thrown out of San Diego federal court (Ken Stone / Times of San Diego) — Issa is arguing that if all the votes are counted, Republicans lose and that’s just not fair. Gotta admire the chutzpah on this guy.

1948, A Boy stares at a TV screen for the first time.

March Hares, c.1910

JOB INTERVIEWER: Where do you see yourself in five years?

ME: